Connie Mack and friends start new firm

MACK, WILEY, DAVENPORT, KLINGLER LAUNCH NEW FIRM: Former Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) is teaming up with Rick Wiley, the GOP operative who ran Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s aborted presidential campaign; Doug Davenport, a lobbyist who worked on President Donald Trump’s campaign; and Hans Klingler, a former chief of staff to Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), to launch a new firm, Black Diamond Strategies. The firm plans to handle domestic and international lobbying work, including work for foreign governments, as well as public relations and grass-roots advocacy campaigns, Mack said in an interview. “We all have our own different experience and knowledge base,” Mack said. “We determined we’re stronger working together than individually.”

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— The firm has already signed seven clients, Mack said, although he declined to disclose them. The four partners will maintain their current firms to handle existing clients but plan to sign new clients through Black Diamond. Mack and Klingler currently represent the GEO Group, a private prison operator, through Mack’s firm, Mack Strategies, according to disclosure records. Davenport currently lobbies for GTECH, a state lottery equipment firm, through his firm, Davenport Ventures.

INVARIANT ADDS A REPUBLICAN: Invariant, the lobbying firm formerly known as Heather Podesta + Partners, is adding the GOP operative Larissa Martinez to its team. Martinez is a former adviser to Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and worked for Carly Fiorina’s presidential campaign. She also “served on President Donald Trump’s transition team, advancing communications and third-party outreach in support of the President’s Cabinet nominations,” according to Invariant.

SUBJECT MATTER TEAMS UP WITH ED KUTLER: Subject Matter is joining forces with Ed Kutler as counsel to its government relations team. Kutler, a former adviser to Newt Gingrich during his days as House speaker, is a longtime lobbyist who spent years working for Clark & Weinstock and then Mercury after the two firms merged. He now runs his own firm, the Kutler Group, where his clients include the Federation of American Hospitals, Harman International and Navient Solutions. "Going back to our time working for the House Leadership from opposite sides of the aisle, I have long enjoyed working with Steve [Elmendorf], and I've also worked with Jimmy Ryan and many members of the Subject Matter team on a variety of client initiatives,” Kutler said in a statement.

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WHITEHOUSE INTRODUCING NEW CAMPAIGN FINANCE BILL: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) is introducing a new version of the DISCLOSE Act today. The legislation, as in previous versions, would require super PACs, nonprofits, corporations and unions that spend money in elections to disclose donors that have given $10,000 or more each time they spend at least $10,000 on political activity. The bill would also prohibit domestic corporations under foreign control from spending money in elections and force shell companies to make their funders public. Here’s the full bill.

— Whitehouse will also lead a Democratic Policy and Communications Committee hearing at 4 p.m. in the Capitol Visitor Center titled “Democracy for Sale: How Our Broken Campaign Finance System Allows Foreign Governments to Buy Influence in Our Elections and What We Can Do About It.” Ellen Weintraub of the Federal Election Commission, Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, Larry Noble of the Campaign Legal Center, Sheila Krumholz of the Center for Responsive Politics and Liz Kennedy of the Center for American Progress plan to speak.

CLOSING THEIR WALLETS: “Senior GOP officials spent much of Tuesday surveying the anger and frustration within their own party [over the collapse of the Senate’s health care bill] and taking calls from bitterly disappointed contributors, some of whom threatened to turn off the cash spigot,” POLITICO’s Alex Isenstadt and Gabriel Debenedetti report. "Senators who refused to support the bill, the party officials predicted, would see their fundraising take an immediate hit.”

— “Texas businessman Doug Deason, a Trump backer and the son of billionaire Darwin Deason, said he and other major GOP donors were warming to the idea of funding primary challenges to senators who had opposed the health care bill. There was growing frustration, he said, over the failure to advance the president’s agenda. In a text message referring to three senators — Sens. Susan Collins, Jeff Flake and Shelley Moore Capito— who played a role in sinking the bill, Deason ripped ‘the spineless Republican members from Maine, Arizona and West Virginia who seem to believe that Obamacare is actually succeeding.’ He added: ‘It will be disappointing to see these three lose their reelection campaigns to Democrats — unless we can find better candidates to run in the primary races against them.’” Of the three, only Flake is up for reelection next year. Full story.

THE LATEST ON THE LOBBYING AGAINST SANCTIONS ON SUDAN: “The lobbying campaign to lift sanctions on war-torn Sudan is shifting into high gear now that the White House has delayed a decision on the policy until October,” The Hill’s Megan Wilson reports. “K Street lobbyists and human rights organizations are working alongside diplomats in the administration to try to reach a final agreement on what any future restrictions on Sudan will look like. … The lifting of sanctions is a potential policy shift that helped spur the government of Sudan to ink a $40,000 per month lobbying contract with one of K Street’s largest firms, Squire Patton Boggs.” Full story.

GRASSLEY ASKS FOR MORE INFORMATION ON RUSSIAN-AMERICAN LOBBYIST: “Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is demanding more information from the Trump administration on Rinat Akhmetshin, the pro-Russian lobbyist who attended a controversial meeting last year with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort,” POLITICO’s Austin Wright reports. “Grassley announced Tuesday he has sent a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly asking for additional visa records and immigration information on Akhmetshin, who became a U.S. citizen in 2009. Grassley said the request is part of a committee investigation into agents of the Russian government who lobbied against the Magnitsky Act but have not registered as foreign lobbyists under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.” Full story.

INTERNET ASSOCIATION DECRIES ADVOCACY GROUP’S ATTACK ON SCALISE: The Internet Association on Tuesday leveled heavy criticism against Fight for the Future — its frequent ally in the battle to preserve strong net neutrality regulations — for its plan to put up billboards accusing lawmakers of undermining net neutrality, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who is still recovering after being shot last month, POLITICO’s Steven Overly reports. “‘Accusing a Member of Congress of ‘betrayal’ while he’s recovering in the hospital is despicable,’ Internet Association President and CEO Michael Beckerman said in a statement. ‘This type of advocacy is not what Internet Association and our member companies stand for.’” Full story.

NATURAL GAS LOBBY FEELS LEFT OUT OF TRUMP’S PLANS: “As Energy Secretary Rick Perry considers whether the U.S. should do more keep coal and nuclear power plants online, natural gas producers are trying to ensure they aren’t left in the dark,” Bloomberg News’ Jennifer Dlouhy, Ari Natter and Jim Polson report. “Lobbyists for the natural gas industry are telling the administration their fuel is just as reliable as coal or nuclear, and that gas-fueled plants have the added advantage of being able to ramp up quickly to respond to price spikes or a drop in wind speeds.”

— “The lobbying push illustrates how fulfilling President Donald Trump’s pledge to save coal has downsides for other fossil fuel interests, including those closely allied with the president. ‘We’re not taking shots at coal and nuclear,’ but it’s important to ‘tell the whole story,’ said Marty Durbin, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at the American Petroleum Institute.” Full story.

JOBS REPORT

— Dentons has added former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to its public policy team. (The news was first reported by Playbook.)

— Mars is bringing on Peter Rowan as senior director of federal government affairs. He previously worked for UBS and is also a veteran of President George W. Bush’s White House.

— Sixkiller Consulting has added Martin LeBlanc as managing director of innovation based in Seattle and Chelsea Legette as a federal policy analyst. The firm has also signed two new clients, the Millions of Jobs Coalition and the American Wild Horse Campaign.

ON THE CALENDAR: The eighth annual Tin Cup Awards Dinner will be held at the Canadian Embassy tonight, hosted by the Washington Government Relations Group. Honorees include Sen.Brian Schatz(D-Hawaii) and Rep. Cedric Richmond(D-La.).

About The Author

Theodoric Meyer covers lobbying for POLITICO and writes the POLITICO Influence newsletter. He previously covered the 2016 campaign for POLITICO and worked as a reporting fellow for ProPublica in New York. He was a lead reporter on ProPublica’s “After the Flood” series on the federal government’s troubled flood insurance program, which won the Deadline Club Award for Local Reporting. He’s a graduate of McGill University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.